The Patrols continue to clash amongst eachother, fighters and gunships now pushing through to the enemy ranks. The first casualties of the battle erupt into small fireballs and it becomes apparent that neither side is stepping back. The forward-most Redd gunship makes a flanking shot and, with the help of one of its fighter escorts, severely cripples the targeted Bloo gunship attempting to gain ground. Already, two Bloo ships were blown to smithereens attempting to push through against superior forces, and so they switch tactics - certain areas of Redd ships are targeted and surgically struck to disrupt the strong formation they have brought up. A Redd bomber's frontal weapon detonates and another Fighter had its engines detonated, taking the rest of the ship with it in multiple secondary explosions. Some ground was regained in counter to the Redd patrol's advances... if this keeps up, it will be a long and bloody battle.
What is this system?
The Narrative Fleet Combat System (NFCS) is a flexible, modular and creative system for use in RP combat. It provides a fair enough system for military engagaments of any scale, while promoting good storytelling and invocative description of what happens in a battle. Due to its abstract nature, it can be somewhat confusing at first, but with practice and observation of many examples, anyone can get the hang of this system in a few tries.
The most important features of this system includes:
- The treatment of every entity, whether that be a ship, vehicle, trooper, officer, magician, robot, daemon or alien, as their own being.
- A system of "Hit Points" that come in different flavors, each acting differently to damage that they take.
- A randomization system based on a d20 which also considers an entity's bonuses and penalties gained during combat or just part of the entity before the battle.
- Support for different styles of victory other than just destroying the entire opposition - routing armies, pushing back attackers and tiring one's opponent are also forms of victory feasible with this system.
- Allowance for a flexible array of abilities to shape the outcome of a battle, Will you brute force your way with shield-piercing railguns, antimatter torpedoes and overwhelming flak fire, or go a more tactical route by boosting the on-board combat CPUs, overloading enemy systems and taking advantage of terrain features?
What follows is a best attempt at a description for how the NFCS mechanics works.
Wounds, Stress and Hit Points
The actual "Gauge" of a ship/entity is measured in two factors: Wounds and Stress. Wounds is basically damage, a block that gets damaged/wounded will not be returned unless repaired by another ship/entity OR if the ship has a certain amount of regen for that type of hit point (shields have an inherent regen, for example). Stress is gained as ships/entities take hits, near-misses or are suffering from some other effect. As a general rule of thumb, if an attack does not cause any damage, it usually inflicts stress instead.
If a ship/entity has all of its hit points filled with stress, it either forfeits a point of leverage to the opposing force (In which if they gain a set amount of Leverage, the battle ends in their favor), or receives a large penalty to ANY action it takes for any turns until the stress goes down. If a ship/entity has all of its hit points filled with wounds, it is destroyed/killed, and forever removed from the battle.
Each "Hit point" of a ship/entity acts in a different way, but in general, they are able to take 1 wound and 1 stress each. This system is designed to be modular, capable of other players generating new kinds of "hit points" and have any sort of rules imposed upon them (as long as all participating parties deem such rules to be fair for the generated hit point), however, 3 of the most commonly used types of hit points are "Health," "Armor" and "Shield."
"Health" is the most basic hit point. It is lost if it takes 1 Wound, and can only hold 1 Stress. It has no inherent regen of any kind, but even the most basic ship/entity is capable of shedding off 1 stress per turn.
"Armor" takes precedence over "Health." Armor is not easily healed (rather, it takes time to repair outside of combat), however it has an inherent stress regen. Any Stress that is inflicted upon armor gets removed next turn (which is to say, any stress inflicted upon Health that gets past Armor stays, barring the basic -1 stress per turn and any other stress-shedding abilities a ship/entity has.
"Shield" takes precedence over "Health" AND "Armor," and is treated as its own guage. Any Stress or Wounds taken are all filtered through Shields before they "spill" onto the other remaining hit points. Shields are capable of taking 1 stress and 1 wound like other hit points, however if all shields on a ship/entity are filled with stress, and additional stress is to be added, each additional stress applied on a shield turns it into a wound. If all "Shield" hit points are already filled with wounds, the remaining Wounds/Stress is applied to the rest of the Hit Points as normal. Shields also have an inherent regen of "Half the total Shield Hit Points."
For simplification's sake, Shields can be treated as having two "points" per square. Wounds take away two points, and Stress takes away one. This can help for Regen purposes, for example, a Ship with 3 "Shield" Hit Points (6 "points" in total) can have regen of up to 3 points, barring any abilities a ship/entity has or any action a different ship/entity used on the damaged ship/entity.
Remember, the NFCS is a modular system, and, with some thinking, you can make your own types of "Hit points" for your ships/entities that cater to the technology of your preferences, as well as any ability the ship/entity may have. It is your story, and you are capable of making your own rules.
Attacking and Defending
Attacks, Defense, and basically every types of action are determined by a d20. The roll determines both ratings, and any bonuses are applied to the roll. For clarification: If a ship with a +3 bonus to attack and a +1 bonus to defence rolls a 12, its defence rating is 13 and its attack rating is 15. These ratings are pitted against the enemy, and the total amount of damage done takes into consideration the "gap" between the attack and defense rolls. On average, a winning attack difference of 4 or higher causes at least 1 wound. A winning defence difference of 4 or higher causes no damage (considered a "miss").
It should be noted that if a d20 rolls a 1, it is an automatic/critical failure, and inversely a 20 is an automatic/critical success. This is to avoid unwinnable/one-sided situations and promote emergent storytelling.
Mass amounts of ships (Squadrons, flotillas, divisions, etc) share a d20, unless some ships have a difference of how many "actions" they can perform (see "Other Bonuses".)
Some actions require a little bit of setup before being enacted, which may require a "pre-roll." Pre-rolls usually have a hand in determining how effective the affected action will be if it is successful. Sometimes Pre-rolls can cause an affected action to automatically succeed or fail, and the effectiveness of the result is dependant on the gap between the rolls of two entities.
Field Repairs
Some ships/entities can support other ships in the midst of battle. These could be boosting the attack or defense bonuses of friendly ships/entities, or repairing wounds/stress from other ships/entities. The roll associated with such actions is affected by a "Support Bonus." Usually, it is safe to assume that ships/entities with Support bonuses have the ability to repair/support others, though in technicality anyone can make such actions. Some effects can lead to penalties to Support actions, however, like disrupted communications or sub-par mechanic tools!
Other Bonuses
The amount of abilities, bonuses, hitpoint types and so on are limited only by one's imagination, though it should be agreed upon by all participating players whether they should be in use or not. Some examples of bonuses that can usually be accepted are as follows:
Separate Stress Meters - Some ships/entities are able to take more of a beating than they let on. This is represented by a separate-looking hitpoint guage that only takes stress. This guage only takes stress, no wounds, though there could be other factors involved. As a rule of thumb, if a ship/entity has a Stress Meter, then the other hitpoint types only take wounds as a result. For example, the HI's Ares-Class Battleship would normally be able to take a maximum of 7 Stress before bad things start happening to it. With the Stress Meter it has, it is capable of having a maximum stress guage of 10, instead.
Additional Actions - Some ships/entities are capable of multitasking, especially large ships like cruisers and battleships, and entities with multiple "brains." Within reason, some ships will have the ability to be able to do multiple things per turn, whether that would simply be attacking more than once, or having separate rolls for attacking and defending, or being able to attack while providing bonuses for a fleet of drones - the combination possibilities are near limitless!
Damage over time - Some ships have the ability to inflict Wounds and/or Stress over several turns. This should be denoted somehow and should have a way of being removed feasibly (most likely through a Support action).
Permanent Stress - Sometimes non-lethal damage can lead to amounts of stress that last during the entire battle - if not for longer! Permanent Stress can not be removed through regeneration, however, it can be healed (at a higher difficulty). If a ship/entity has its entire hitpoint guage filled with Permanent Stress (or P.Stress + Wounds), the ship/entity is considered "Disabled" and cannot participate further in the combat, but is not removed until destroyed/killed.
Abilities unlocked through damage (Rage) - In some cases, Bonuses (or penalties!) are added the more damage a ship/entity takes. It could be added shields with less health, or more attack/defence bonuses earned with the more damage a ship/entity takes.
Common-Sense rules for the NFCS
1: THE RESULT HAS TO MAKE SENSE - The Narrative of the story has a large effect on some of the results for each action. Dodging a flurry of attacks with a low defence bonus will not be done flawlessly, there has to be some amount of stress if no damage is taken. Alternatively, if a fighter has to weave through a large storm of bullets to get a hit on an enemy ship and succeeds, both ships will take damage.
2: DON'T ASSUME YOU CAN DO ANYTHING WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE - Much of the safer actions are not as powerful, but much of the more powerful abilities have some sort of cost. Whether that be exposing yourself to get a better shot, pumping more power to weapons from a different system or preparing a mega-super-ultra attack on an unsuspecting enemy, you don't just overpower an enemy ship/entity without any risk whatsoever. With that said, be sensible on how you accomplish it as well - nobody likes a godmodder.
3: RESPECT ALL WHO USE THE SYSTEM - There may be a GM and there may be some trouble, but the purpose of the NFCS is to resolve a conflict fairly whilist telling a thrilling narrative (It's part of the title of this system, after all!). Don't immediately shoot down any custom ability ideas just because they sound stupid, but don't get too unbalanced with the sides unless everyone agrees that the imbalance is part of the story to be told. Remember, ALL PLAYERS have to agree to some sort of resolution if a conflict arises. Even if there is a GM who has the final say in everything, don't be afraid to bring up any problems you have with how things are currently going - the GM should be willing to work with their players.
More things will be added as new problems/suggestions come to light.